Apple is seeing poor yields from its iPhone casing production facilities in India and is experiencing difficulties in scaling up its production operations, says a Financial Times report.
At a casings factory in Hosur run by Indian conglomerate Tata, one of Apple’s suppliers, just about one out of every two components coming off the production line is in good enough shape to eventually be sent to Foxconn, Apple’s assembly partner for building iPhones, according to a person familiar with the matter.
This 50 per cent “yield” fares badly compared with Apple’s goal for zero defects. Two people that have worked in Apple’s offshore operations said the factory is on a plan towards improving proficiency but the road ahead is long.
Former Apple engineers told the Financial Times that in China, suppliers and government officials took a “whatever it takes” approach to win iPhone orders. Former Apple employees describe instances in which they would estimate a certain task might take several weeks, only to show up the next morning to find it already completed at inexplicable speed.
Operations in India are not running at that sort of pace, a former Apple engineer said: “There just isn’t a sense of urgency.”
The company has sent product designers and engineers from California and China to factories in southern India to train locals and help set up production operations, four individuals who are said to be familiar with the matter told FT.
Apple began producing lower-end iPhones in India in 2017, last September Indian suppliers began building flagship models within weeks of their launch in China.